Learn To Fly
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Avery Shimizu has never been much of a social butterfly. When she discovers the SOS Brigade she sees it as a chance to spread her wings. But she may have gotten more than she bargained for when she discovers their true identities. Itsuki/OC. Light Haruhi/Kyon
1. Biting The Bullet

_Welcome to the S.O.S. Brigade website! We search for the existence of aliens, espers, time travellers and other freaky phenomena. The world is filled with mysteries and we are here to solve it!_

Avery Shimizu loved the paranormal. She spent a great deal of her spare time reading up on alien encounters, learning the procedures of ghost hunting and researching the theory behind time travel. So when she came across the website for the S.O.S. Brigade one night she was definitely intrigued.

She was surprised to find that it was a club actually based at her school, North High. Her mother had been pestering her lately to join in with some extracurricular activities… Avery knew she was right. She was such a wallflower at school – she really needed to make friends and get involved a bit more.

The S.O.S. Brigade… A club that actively searched for supernatural goings-on. She couldn't have asked for a more perfect club.

After perusing the site a bit more she found that the club was hosted in the old literary clubroom. She knew where that was. And now she knew what she was going to be doing after school tomorrow. She closed her laptop, feeling positive and uncharacteristically decisive.

XXX

This was it – the old literary club. Avery hesitated outside the door before finally rapping her knuckles firmly on the wooden frame. If she didn't do this now then she was still going to be shy and unsociable later on in life.

Inside the clubroom the S.O.S. Brigade members, except for Yuki, exchanged confused glances. Everybody there was accounted for. Who on earth could be knocking? Even Haruhi looked briefly confused, though of course her vigorous attitude quickly replaced that.

"Kyon, get the door!" she ordered.

"Why do I have to do it?" protested Kyon. Haruhi always made him do _everything_ – from shopping for supplies to paying everyone's lunch bill.

"Because I'm the club leader and I said so!" barked Haruhi.

It was a stupid point but Kyon knew that arguing with Haruhi was always going to be futile. With a sigh, he reluctantly got to his feet and made for the door. When he opened it he found a petite girl with long strawberry blonde hair reaching almost to her knees.

"Are you lost?" asked Kyon. It was the only reasonable explanation he could think of for why some strange girl would be knocking on the door of their clubroom.

"Erm, I was looking for the S.O.S. Brigade," said Avery hesitantly. She was then met by stares, making her question if she really had come to the right room after all.

Unsurprisingly, it was Haruhi who broke the silence. "And what exactly do you want with the S.O.S. Brigade?" she asked, half suspicious and half curious. Even she was confused by the surprise visitor.

"Well… I was kinda hoping I could join," replied Avery awkwardly.

If she thought they'd been staring at her before it was nothing compared to now. You could have heard a pin drop. Avery felt uncomfortable. Was it really that weird that somebody new wanted to join their club? Were they discriminating against her in some way? This was why she'd always avoided making the first step towards friendships with new people…

Haruhi got up from her chair and stalked over towards the door. Avery had to fight the urge to take a wary step back – she wasn't sure what it was but this girl came across as very intimidating. "You _really_ wanna join the S.O.S. Brigade?"

"Erm, yeah… If that's okay?" said Avery, still feeling awkward. Maybe they weren't going to let her join.

What she didn't expect was for the girl to explode into a tornado of excitement. "That's more than okay. That's _perfect_!" She grabbed Avery's arm and dragged her forcibly into the room.

"Hey, wait…" protested Avery, but Haruhi didn't even hear her.

"Normally we interview people first and we make them take a test," Haruhi jabbered. "But in this case we'll make an exception and let you join free of charge!"

"What are you talking about? You don't interview anybody; you just kidnap strangers and force them to join," Kyon pointed out. "And we definitely don't charge anybody – that doesn't even make sense!"

Haruhi ignored him like always. She was practically dragging Avery round in circles, trying to decide where to get her to sit. "Here, you can sit next to Mikuru! Kyon, you'll have to go and get another chair if you want to sit down."

Kyon sighed again. Of course Haruhi would give away _his_ chair and not her own.

"Oh it's okay, I don't want to take your seat or anything," Avery apologised quickly, as she was forcibly plonked into the empty seat next to a younger girl with long hair. She felt quite dizzy after being pulled all the way around the room. What kind of club _was_ this?

"It's okay, don't worry," said Kyon with a casual wave of his hand. He was just going to blame Haruhi anyway. "I'll go get another chair."

"You could sound a bit more enthusiastic about it!" Haruhi shouted after his retreating back. "We have a new club member! You should be excited!"

She then started to jabber introductions, which Avery couldn't keep up with at all. She spoke so fast! All she was able to distinguish from her spiel was that she was the club leader – no surprise there – and that her name was Haruhi Suzumiya.

The boy she'd called Kyon soon returned carrying an extra chair, just as Haruhi was convincing Avery to move her seat closer to the girl sat beside her.

"See? You could almost be Mikuru's older sister!" she exclaimed happily.

"How did you work that one out?" asked Kyon, raising an eyebrow. He couldn't see any similarities between the two, besides the fact that they were both girls and both had long light-coloured hair. The basis of Haruhi's declaration seemed quite thin.

"Duh, because their hair's nearly the same colour!" said Haruhi like the reason was obvious.

"Well if you go by that logic then that would mean that we look like we're related too," said Kyon sarcastically.

"Now you're just being stupid… We don't look anything alike!"

As they continued their debate over Haruhi's poorly made point, Avery looked desperately towards the other club members for some sign of normality. The girl named Mikuru was busy watching Haruhi nervously – she seemed fearful of the attention being turned on her again. The girl sat across from them had her nose in a book and didn't seem to have even realised that there was a new person in the room.

The boy sat next to the girl with the book was also watching the debate like Mikuru was, but with a cheerful look on his face. He looked familiar – Avery must have seen him around school. When he noticed Avery looking at him he gave her a friendly smile. "Believe it or not, this is actually pretty ordinary for us."

Avery wasn't sure if his words were comforting or not, but at least it seemed like Haruhi was the only crazy one here. She smiled back, trying to seem at ease. "Well I guess I chose an interesting club to join at least."

"You're in class nine, right?"

"Err, yeah," said Avery, surprised.

"Me too." The boy smiled again and held out his hand across the desk. "I'm Itsuki Koizumi."

That was why she recognised him… The realisation made Avery feel a little ashamed. She really _was_ a hermit – she kept to herself so much that she couldn't even place her own classmates... Well this was what she was here to change. She wasn't going to be a wallflower for the rest of her life.

As if proving that thought to herself she took Itsuki's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Avery Shimizu."

The exchange seemed to recapture Haruhi's attention because she was suddenly right in front of Avery's face. "Avery? That's so pretty!"

"Oh. Thanks," said Avery, remembering to smile. She wasn't really used to compliments. She was much more used to being ignored.

Haruhi was still inspecting her closely. "Hmmm… I do still think you look like you could be Mikuru's sister. But you don't have big boobs like she does so maybe that wouldn't work after all…"

"Erm, what?" Avery stared at her in surprise, feeling a light blush colour her cheeks. What did her figure have to do with anything?

"Just look at her! She's totally cute and she has amazing boobs!" exclaimed Haruhi, pulling Mikuru's arms up to keep her from hiding her chest. Mikuru protested and tried to squirm out of her grip. "That's why she's our mascot. But don't worry, we'll find a use for you too!"

"A use?" repeated Avery nervously.

"Yeah! Yuki's the bookworm and Koizumi's the mysterious exchange student!" explained Haruhi enthusiastically, indicating the two students that were sat opposite Avery. "And Kyon's just the dogsbody."

"Well at least you realise you always make me do all the grunt work," Kyon grumbled, which Haruhi ignored.

"But I'm sure we can think of an exciting role for you," she promised Avery.

"Oh you don't have to…" started Avery but Haruhi just continued to ramble on, unaware that Avery had even said anything. She'd only wanted to try and become a bit more sociable. She'd thought this had seemed like the perfect club for her… But what on earth had she gotten herself into?

Eventually Haruhi seemed to pull herself together. "So what made you want to join the S.O.S. Brigade? Did you hear about how awesome we were?"

Kyon coughed loudly, in a poor attempt to conceal the words, "Yeah right."

Avery tried not to let that put her off. "Well I saw the website for it and it said about aliens and espers and time travellers… And, erm, I dunno. I just thought that sounded kinda cool," she finished lamely.

What she really wanted was to be as enthusiastic as Haruhi and gush over how fascinating she found anything to do with the paranormal. But with everyone's eyes on her she couldn't pluck up that much courage. Hopefully in time she could show more of that enthusiasm…

Luckily Haruhi didn't seem to find her answer lame at all. Instead she beamed at her. "That's fantastic! Well you've definitely come to the right place; I'm sure you'll fit in here! Right guys?"

She turned to the others, who took it as their cue to respond. "That's right," agreed Itsuki cheerfully – the smile had never left his face.

Haruhi then looked to Yuki. "Right, Yuki?"

The quiet girl didn't even look up from her book. "Right," she responded monotonously.

"Mikuru?" Haruhi prompted. The younger girl jumped when she heard her name. "Isn't that right?"

"Err, yes. I mean, right," she stammered in a soft voice.

"I told you!" Haruhi beamed again, her attention back to Avery. "Congratulations, you're now an official member of the S.O.S. Brigade!"

Avery noticed that Haruhi hadn't asked Kyon for his agreement like she had with the others. She gave him a questioning look and he simply shrugged. "Welcome to the asylum."

**XXX**

**Author's Note!**

Yes, I have started yet another story! I have like a bazillion OCs and I really want to get round to writing stories for each and every one of them… No matter how long it takes me to do it T_T

Just a note that this will probably be more of a set of drabbles than a full on story. The general kind of thing you get with slice of life (however abnormal) storylines :3 Of course I had to start with Avery joining the SOS Brigade!

Also. Haruhi and Kyon are incredible fun to write. That is all.


	2. The Mummy Walks At Twilight?

The S.O.S Brigade wasn't anything quite like Avery had expected. Firstly, she'd learnt that the name of the club stood for 'Spreading Excitement All Over The World With Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade', which didn't even sound like it was anything to do with aliens, time travellers or espers…

Secondly, there was Haruhi herself. Avery may not have been the most sociable of girls, but she still knew that Haruhi defied everything she'd ever known about people or even social conventions in general. It was a pretty easy assumption to make that there was nobody else quite like Haruhi Suzumiya.

And finally, the club didn't seem to really do anything! She'd half expected the group to be constantly researching into unusual phenomena, staging ghost hunts, trying to track down UFOs or even joining some crazy cult or religion… But it seemed that even Haruhi herself didn't quite know what to do with the S.O.S. Brigade.

Still, Avery stuck to her decision to join – if she left the S.O.S. Brigade now then what other club would she join instead? So she turned up at the clubroom every afternoon after classes had finished without fail. But so far they hadn't done anything interesting or exciting like the club's website had suggested.

The boys would play Othello or some other board game, Yuki would sit in a corner and read, Mikuru would be forced into a ridiculous maid's outfit and have to serve them all tea, Haruhi would flit about doing whatever she liked, and Avery… Avery generally just sat and watched the others.

Despite spending quite a lot of time around these people, she still didn't feel comfortable instigating conversation or trying to suggest new activities to them. To be fair to the others, they always tried to keep her included. They almost went out of their way to do so… The boys encouraged her to play Othello several times, but she wasn't very good at it and kept losing spectacularly.

And honestly? She found it far more interesting to sit back and observe this unusual group of individuals. Excluding herself from social situations simply came naturally to her anyway.

"Try not to make the really obvious moves," Kyon told her.

Avery stopped in her tracks as she'd been reaching for one of the black and white pieces. Kyon had persuaded her to take his place in another game of Othello against Itsuki and was now trying to coach her. Apparently the other members of the club seemed bothered by how she didn't participate much. Yet Yuki was always allowed to read by herself without being interrupted… Avery had a feeling that there was a double standard in here somewhere.

"Right," she said, feeling flustered as she went for a different piece.

"When you go for the easier moves it makes it easier for your opponent to figure out what you're going to do next and plan a strategy against you," Itsuki added helpfully, his usual smile on his face.

"Right," Avery repeated, changing her mind again and trying to look for a different move that she could make. Logic really wasn't one of her strong points. She found thinking logically to be rather boring. And she really didn't intend to be playing this game much in the future anyway.

Plus the lesson clearly didn't help. She still lost the game anyway. But Avery guessed that as long as she wasn't being forced to dress up like Mikuru then she couldn't really complain…

"Urgh! I don't wanna do this stupid essay!" Haruhi complained loudly. She was sat with her feet up on the computer desk, a frown etched deeply into her face. She seemed to be in a particularly bad mood.

"What's the essay about?" Itsuki asked politely. He seemed to be the only who didn't fear Haruhi's notorious bad moods.

"We have to describe the lifestyle from a period of history in detail," replied Haruhi grumpily. "But most of history's so boring! I don't wanna write about slaves or wars. Who would wanna write about that kind of stuff?"

Kyon rolled his eyes. "You should be grateful. Think how much worse it would be if you'd had to have lived those lifestyles yourself."

"Who cares anyway?" said Haruhi childishly. "That stuff's all in the past… I don't care about the past. I care about the future!"

"You could write about Ancient Egyptians," Avery suggested. Haruhi shot her a sudden look and she recoiled slightly, timidly adding, "I mean… I think that stuff's kinda cool…"

Haruhi put her feet down and gave her a scrutinising look across the desk. "You mean like mummies and pyramids and stuff?"

Avery gave a half shrug. "Um, yeah, pretty much…" The Ancient Egyptians were one of her favourite periods of history. She found their superstitions and way of life fascinating. Plus it also happened to be part of her weekend job. She didn't really appreciate the rather judgemental look that Haruhi was giving her…

"That's a _great_ idea!" Haruhi exclaimed, her face suddenly lighting up with enthusiasm. "It's perfect – why didn't I think of that?! Mummies are _awesome_!"

Avery felt relieved. "Oh… Good. I'm glad you think so."

"It actually isn't a bad idea," Kyon commended her. "For Haruhi anyway. It's definitely right up her street."

Avery just shrugged again. "Oh, well I work at the museum and that's my main exhibit. It's something I've always been interested in, so it's generally the first thing that springs to mind."

"Oh, you work at that museum downtown?" Kyon asked conversationally.

"Just part-time," Avery replied. "On weekends. My mom's the museum curator."

"You work at the museum?!" Haruhi suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from her chair. "And your mom _owns_ it?"

"Well she doesn't technically own it, but I guess she _is_ in charge…" said Avery, taken aback by Haruhi's sudden interest in her weekend job.

"That's _perfect_!"

"What's perfect?" asked Kyon. As always he had no idea what was going through Haruhi's head.

Haruhi ignored him. "We'll go to the museum at night and do a stakeout! Everything creepy always happens at night – maybe the mummies will actually come back to life!"

"Aaand here we go…" Kyon groaned.

"Um, I don't think we'd be allowed there at night," Avery pointed out. "It'd probably be against the museum's policy…"

"But you'll ask, won't you?" Haruhi demanded, grabbing Avery's hands and getting far to close to her face. "Your mom _runs_ the museum. Surely she'll make an exception for us if she knows it's for the club!"

What did she think Avery had told her mom about the S.O.S. Brigade? But when the club's leader was all in her personal space like that she felt like agreeing with her was the only option…

"Okay…" said Avery reluctantly, secretly thinking that there was no way that her mom would allow it. But as long as she still asked then she was doing what Haruhi wanted, wasn't she? It wasn't like she could control what her mom decided.

"Brilliant!" Haruhi cried enthusiastically, releasing Avery's hands and dancing back round to the computer. "Ask her if we can do it this Friday, then we won't have to worry about getting up early for school!"

"Why exactly do we all have to go?" asked Kyon. "This is _your_ essay, remember. None of _us_ need to learn about mummies."

"Because I'm making it a club activity!" said Haruhi impatiently. She'd clearly forgotten all about the actual essay. "It's mandatory!"

"Club activities aren't supposed to be mandatory, idiot," Kyon pointed out. "They're supposed to be fun. People _choose_ to do them."

"It _will_ be fun!" Haruhi insisted. "But I'm saying you still have to do it, so it's mandatory."

Kyon knew better than anyone that no matter how much he argued with her it wouldn't make Haruhi change her mind, despite that fact that Avery clearly hadn't even asked her mom if it was okay yet. Haruhi seemed to be going with the idea that it _would_ be okay and that she'd get her way like she always did.

Avery was true to her word though and she asked her mom about it that same night. She couldn't see her agreeing to it in a million years, but she was still determined to ask so that she could at least feel like she'd played her role properly.

And a tiny part of her did actually want her mom to say yes… She genuinely thought that Haruhi's idea sounded pretty fun. What paranormal-enthusiastic teen wouldn't want the mummies to walk at midnight? For Avery it sounded exactly like the kind of adventure she'd always wanted…

Not to mention she knew she'd feel a little more socially accepted amongst the group if she could do this for them. She had to give her best effort at this. So that night she asked her mom over dinner with an ace up her sleeve.

"Um, Mom, can I ask a favour?"

"That depends on what it is," Rimu Shimizu smiled. She'd always had a teasing, humorous nature that Avery had never been able to imitate.

"Well… I told the club about the museum and Haruhi was wondering if we could go there on a night and watch the Egyptian exhibit?" said Avery, pushing rice around her bowl with her chopsticks.

Rimu looked surprised and not just at the request. It was the first time she'd heard Avery refer to one of the S.O.S. Brigade by name, as an individual, rather than the club as a whole. It made her feel more confident that her daughter really _had_ made new friends, rather than just seeing the club as another academic activity.

But either way it wasn't really a request she could agree to. "Oh sweetie, I'm sorry… It's nice that your friend's taking such an interest in where you work, but I just can't allow you all to do that. It would be breaching several of the museum's policies."

"Yeah, I figured that'd be the case," said Avery forlornly. "But my friends were just so excited about that idea that I had to at least ask…"

She made sure she put a bit of emphasis into the word 'friends'. That was the ace up her sleeve. After all, it was Rimu who'd been pushing her for so long to try and make new friends. Avery knew it would make it a little harder for her to say no. Did that make her manipulative? It wasn't exactly like what she'd said wasn't true…

Like she'd expected, Rimu bit her lip, looking torn. "Well I can't let you all stay there during the night – I know that for definite. But… I could ask the director to cover the morning for me and maybe see if I can oversee a twilight shift for you all instead. I'll still be there, and so will security, but the museum_ will_ be closed."

That sounded fairly promising… It wasn't exactly what Haruhi had wanted, but it _would_ still be starting to get dark by then and there wouldn't be anyone else there besides Avery's mom and a few security guards. Going by what Rimu had said about the museum's policies it was likely the best they were going to get.

"Yeah, okay," said Avery brightly. "I think they'll like that."

"Good," Rimu smiled. "I wouldn't want to put you in bad graces with your new friends."

Again, just like Avery had expected. Maybe she understood people better than she thought… Well. She understood her mom anyway. Other people were likely to be more of a challenge. Haruhi especially…

The S.O.S. Brigade leader was disappointed that they couldn't do a midnight tour like she'd wanted, but once Avery explained about the twilight shift that Rimu had offered she regained all of her enthusiasm at once. Avery had even managed to arrange it for the Friday like Haruhi had requested.

So that Friday evening they all met at the museum. Rimu greeted them in the main foyer, then gave them a quick tour of the part of the museum that they'd be staking out. She was highly amused by Avery's rather abstract group of friends. Especially Haruhi, who unsurprisingly always attracted everyone's notice.

She left them to it once they reached the Ancient Egyptians exhibit, knowing that Avery would be able to cover the knowledge on it herself if needed. She left them with a walkie-talkie in case they needed her, informing them of where her office was and where the security guards would be stationed. She then left, saying she'd come back for them again in a few hours.

"Wow, this place is pretty creepy once it starts getting dark," remarked Kyon.

They were all leaning against one of the safety barriers, watching the three sarcophagi – two of which were open and the middle one which was closed. Only the museum's low lighting had been left on in order to keep the electricity down whilst the building was closed.

"I've never actually been here this late," Avery admitted. The museum was never open at this time. But she personally thought that it was cool, rather than creepy.

Haruhi shared the same view. Who would have thought that two very different girls could possibly think the same? "It's so cool! I didn't think it would be as good with it not being properly night time yet… But because it's already quite dark and there's not really anyone else here it's still really spooky!"

They had a packed dinner of rice balls, sushi and a flask of hot tea – all of which Mikuru had made. Rimu had agreed to allow it as long as they all cleaned up after themselves. By this point they were all sat on the floor in a rough semi-circle, still facing the exhibit.

They chatted as they ate and Avery found that she was thoroughly enjoying herself, even if this wasn't the focus of them being here. It felt like what she imagined a slumber party to be like. She said as much out loud, though she edited it slightly so that she didn't sound quite so much like a social reject.

"I feel like we're having a slumber party," she remarked.

"Yeah, all we need now are our PJs and some scary movies!" Haruhi agreed enthusiastically.

"I don't like scary movies," Mikuru whimpered. She didn't seem as comfortable being in the museum as the others did.

"They're not real, Mikuru! What's there to be scared of?" Haruhi chastised her. "We should _totally_ have a real slumber party and get you used to them!"

"Really?" asked Avery, trying not to sound too excited. Maybe she'd get to go to a proper slumber party after all.

"Yeah! We can do it at Kyon's place," Haruhi decided on the spot.

"Why my place?" Kyon questioned indignantly.

"Because I'm the Brigade leader and I said so!" said Haruhi bossily. "And that way we can include your little sister too."

"Yeah, I suppose she would like that," Kyon conceded reluctantly. He clearly had a soft spot for his little sister.

After about the first hour however, nothing new had happened and Haruhi's enthusiasm had rapidly worn off. "I'm booored!" she complained. "I know it's technically early but it's still dark out… The mummies shouldn't be so picky!"

"I don't think it's so much about being picky as it is about being dead for hundreds of years," Kyon pointed out sarcastically.

"Thousands of years," Avery corrected him automatically without thinking. He raised his eyebrows at her and she suddenly felt like she was being an irritating know-it-all. "Sorry! I didn't mean to say you were wrong or anything; I'm just used to going over these facts," she apologised quickly.

"It's fine," said Kyon, sounding amused. "You clearly know your stuff."

"If you had to do the same thing every weekend you'd know it too," Avery smiled. "Luckily it hasn't lost any of the appeal. I still think Ancient Egyptians are fascinating."

"Well they're not fascinating right now," Haruhi grumbled, hugging her knees with a scowl on her face. It didn't take a genius to know that she wasn't the most patient of people.

"Why don't we play a game to pass the time?" Itsuki suggested good-naturedly.

"What game?"

"I Spy?"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "I Spy's lame."

Kyon secretly agreed and he didn't usually side with Itsuki, but he was getting fed up of Haruhi's impatience so he chose to ignore her opinion. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'M'," he said drolly.

"Mummy," Haruhi, Avery, Itsuki and even Yuki all said in unison.

Kyon's mouth twitched like he was going to smile. "Alright then. I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'P'."

"Pyramid."

They ended up deriving more amusement from picking the most ridiculously obvious choices and seeing who could guess the fastest, so the game wasted another half hour. There were only so many times that they could use 'Egyptian' and 'sand.' It seemed to have killed Haruhi's boredom at least… Now she was just worried about the little time they had left.

"Come on, something needs to happen already!" she pouted after looking at Kyon's watch for the fifth time. "We're gonna have to leave soon!"

She reverted back to playing with Mikuru's hair, which she'd been doing earlier when she'd been feeling bored, and trying to decide new cosplay ideas for her – much to Mikuru's dismay. Yuki had been reading by herself pretty much the entire time and the boys were now having a quiet conversation out of Haruhi's earshot.

Avery didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she couldn't help but feel curious when she heard Kyon grumble, "Those mummies had just better stay dead."

She frowned, shuffling a bit closer to them. "Do you really think it's a possibility that they might not?" The boys both looked a little startled at the interruption and she realised that she'd just admitted she'd been listening in on their conversation. "Um, sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy or anything, I just kinda overheard…"

"It's fine," said Itsuki with his usual smile. He didn't seem bothered by the idea at all.

"Put it this way…" Kyon told Avery. "I guess you could say that Haruhi always manages to get her way. So it wouldn't surprise me if a couple of mummies got up and started walking around just to keep her happy."

That was a joke, right? One thing Avery had always been was open-minded, so she loved to think that what Kyon had just said could actually be a possibility… But he seemed to be the most practical one of the group. Surely _he_ didn't really believe that was true… He was probably just making an excessive point that Haruhi always got what she wanted.

But no sooner had the thought passed through her head, the lights suddenly went out and threw them all into darkness. Kyon gasped and Mikuru squealed, grabbing onto Haruhi.

"Mikuru!" Haruhi protested. "Get a hold of yourself – it's only the lights!" But there was a tremor of excitement in her voice. Did she really believe that? Or was this the kind of thing she'd been waiting for?

"It's probably just a power cut," said Kyon, trying to sound convincing.

But Itsuki was suddenly on his feet. "Where's the walkie-talkie?"

"Err, it was here somewhere…" replied Avery, trying to find it on the floor in the dark.

Haruhi managed to locate it amongst the remnants of their little picnic. "I've got it!" She held down the button on the side and spoke into the mouth piece. "Mrs. Shimizu? Did they shut the lights off early or something?" There was no reply. "Mrs. Shimizu, can you hear me?"

But there was still nothing. Avery began to fear more for her mom than for their group. A problem with the power wouldn't affect the walkie-talkies… Was this really more than just a power cut? If so then what _was_ happening?

"I need to go and find her," she said, getting to her feet unsteadily in the dark as she tried not to tread on anything.

Itsuki caught her arm and gave her a hand up. "I'll go with you."

"Err, thank you," said Avery in surprise.

"We should all go," Haruhi decided, getting to her feet too. The others followed one by one. "But we'll never be able to find our way anywhere like this!"

"Here," said a quiet voice. There was suddenly a beam of light, revealing Yuki with a torch in her hand. She seemed completely unperturbed by the unexpected darkness.

"Good thinking, Yuki!" said Haruhi as Yuki passed the torch to her. She didn't even question why Yuki had thought to bring a torch with her, or where she'd been keeping it for that matter. "Now let's see if we can go and figure out what's going on…"

There was a sudden loud crunch that certainly hadn't been caused by anyone in their group. It sounded like the crunch of stone.

"Wh… what was that?" Mikuru stammered.

Haruhi swept the torch beam over the exhibit in front of them. The lid of the middle sarcophagus had moved. It was now partly open.

"No way…" she breathed. She sounded scared, but the excitement was still there. This was _exactly_ what she'd been waiting for.

"That… wasn't like that before… was it?" asked Kyon nervously.

Stone scraped against stone as the heavy lid opened further, answering Kyon's question. The group watched wide-eyed and open-mouthed as a hand appeared through the gap, pushing the lid completely open, followed by a head, then a torso…

Mikuru screamed. The beam of light bounced and spun as Haruhi dropped the torch. It came to rest with the beam pointing forward, still partly illuminating the mummy that was rising from its tomb.

Avery couldn't stop staring. She felt like she should probably run, but her brain didn't seem to want to send the right signals to her legs. This could _not_ be happening… She'd worked this exhibit every weekend for almost a year now and nothing unusual had ever happened during that time…

So why now? Was it really because it was what Haruhi wanted? Was there actually something more to what Kyon and Itsuki had been talking about? Did that mean that Haruhi was more abnormal than she'd thought? Just what was it about her that made her so special?

And more importantly… Was this mummy friendly or was it going to kill them all for disturbing its eternal sleep? Avery was sincerely hoping it wasn't the latter…


End file.
